Structural engineer John Pistorino tells 'Fox & Friends' he's 'surprised' that cargo ship took down Baltimore Key Bridge

By Debapriya Bhattacharya
Published on : 19:19 PST, Mar 27, 2024

In an aerial view, the cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland (Getty Images)

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Structural engineer John Pistorino joined hosts Lawrence Jones, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt, and Brian Kilmeade over the phone to discuss the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, March 26 episode of 'Fox & Friends'.

The tragedy took place as a cargo ship that was supposed to pass under it veered off course and hit one of the support columns, sending the structure tumbling into the water.

Maryland authorities are using SONAR to search for people underwater, and have spotted vehicles in the depths, including three passenger vehicles, a cement truck, and a fifth vehicle.

The cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. According to reports, rescuers are still searching for multiple people, while two survivors have been pulled from the Patapsco River. A work crew was fixing potholes on the bridge, which is used by roughly 30,000 people each day, when the ship struck at around 1:30am on Tuesday morning. The accident has temporarily closed the Port of Baltimore, one of the largest and busiest on the East Coast of the U.S. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) — The cargo ship Dali sits in the water after running into and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. According to reports, rescuers are still searching for multiple people, while two survivors have been pulled from the Patapsco River. A work crew was fixing potholes on the bridge, which is used by roughly 30,000 people each day, when the ship struck at around 1:30am on Tuesday morning. The accident has temporarily closed the Port of Baltimore, one of the largest and busiest on the East Coast of the US (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

John Pistorino's take on Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

"At this point, I'm surprised that a container ship like that, which is so large, would be able to (take it down) even if it's off course," Pistorino told the hosts.

He referenced a similar tragedy that struck the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the Tampa Bay area decades ago and said, "Back over in Tampa, we do have some means underwater now, so if the ship does get out of its own direction, it will divert it away from the critical parts of the bridge. There's underwater structures that the ship would come across before it actually got to the bridge itself."

The importance of 'redundancy' in bridge construction

According to the American Institute of Steel Construction, redundancy is "the quality of a bridge that enables it to perform its design function in a damaged state," while a redundant member is “a member whose failure does not cause failure of the bridge.”

"In the context of bridge engineering, redundancy is considered a characteristic of good design," it adds.

It also happens to be the quality that faulty bridges have lacked in the past, shared Pistrino.

"If we lose the critical part of one column, the structure itself tries to redistribute the load and then goes to the other column, which is apparently then overloaded… That's the nature of the structures," he proceeded to explain.

"It could be a money thing, but I think, really, that the design of the redundancy would be something that should always be considered," Pistorino added.

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